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Dane Forgione
Dane Forgione is a cast member on the MentalCast. He is the second-longest tenured cast member in the show's history, only behind Michael Riley. Episode #251, recorded on February 12, 2013, marks five years since Dane debuted on the show, though he was not featured in that episode. While Dane was known mostly as a cast member, he also hosted the show on 6 different occasions. He temporarily left the show twice, once during the last quarter of 2008, and once during the second quarter of 2012. Both times were for theater performances through the Staten Island Academy of Performing Arts, also known as SIAOPA, though the second time he hung around in chat and made cameos. It was generally accepted, since he appeared on episode #205 with no mention of the SIAOPA performances, that he was attempting to appear semi-regularly during his theater run. Dane, much like Taylor once did, also acted as a talent booker for the show, as he was responsible for Brad Jones (II), Josh Hadley, Fred Fritz and Dustin Kidd appearing on the show. Dane usually got into arguments with several of the cast members, though most of the time they were in jest. He has also made appearances on Josh's podcasts, "Radiodrome" and "What the Fuck?!", Fred's former podcast, "Erase/Rewind", and Dustin's former podcast, "Cadaver Cinema Radio". In episode #148, Dane had a huge blow-up over the TENdeep list "Top 10 Albums of the 90s", in which Neutral Milk Hotel's album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea took the top spot. He set off into a hate-fueled rant that ended with the beginnings of a rivalry against Andrew Moll, writer of the TENdeep and 411mania contributor. Although the rivalry has been seemingly one-sided, Andrew Moll has retired as writer of the TENdeep lists on 411mania, leading Mike to believe that Dane caused him to retire (a thought mentioned on air several times). This has since been referred to as a Neutral Milk Hotel moment, and the phrase is coined as meaning any occurrence of a cast member getting so upset at something (a news story, anecdote, celebrity, etc.) that the other cast members find it hilarious. On December 4, 2012, he became only the third person in the show's history to reach 150 appearances, and on December 18, 2012, he surpassed Taylor Scheid in number of appearances to become the second-longest tenured cast member in the show's history. In 2013, Dane decided to focus less on actual appearances on the MentalCast and more on the production side, as well as focusing on "You Can't Be Serious!", an improv show that Mike hosts. On February 1, 2014, he officially took a leave of absence from the show to focus again on SIAOPA theater projects. Though he had been dormant in terms of show appearances for over a year, Dane "returned" to the show in January of 2015 in a sense, playing the "Dane-O-Tron 9000," a machine built by Michael Riley featuring over 125,000 (usually; the number fluctuates) phrases and clips of Dane, an idea teased by Michael and others years ago. However, since such a machine is unfeasible, the "machine" is played by Dane live on the show. This is part of a series of cameo appearances of Dane playing different characters, which ended on March 3, 2015 with his second appearance as the "Dane-O-Tron 9000." With this series of cameos done, Dane officially semi-retired from the show. He made one one-off appearance on the November 4, 2015 episode and made a cameo in the 400th episode and The Best of 2015. Starting in Season 32, Dane was the acting producer of the show, as well as an emergency stand-in when needed. His voice could be heard in most episodes, but he was not credited for an appearance if he was solely acting as producer. He made his official 200th appearance on May 23, 2017, making him the only other person to do so besides host Michael Riley. He returned to the show temporarily as a regular in June 2017, filling in for Chelsea Tarkington while she temporarily stepped down to recurring status. Dane returned to his post as producer with the announcement of Chelsea's return, as well as the beginning of the "reboot" of the show in March 2019, though this would be short lived, as, in June 2019, due to a resurgence in his theater career, which now included directing and writing his own plays independently of SIAOPA performances, along with acting, Dane announced his full retirement from the show for good. Notable Episodes *Episode #18 (February 15, 2008; debut appearance) *Episode #111 (July 13, 2010; 50th appearance) *Episode #114 (August 4, 2010; first time hosting) *Episode #162 (June 14, 2011; 100th appearance) *Episode #242 (December 4, 2012; 150th appearance) *Episode #476 (May 23, 2017; 200th appearance)Category:Episode hosts Category:2008 debuts Category:50+ appearances Category:100+ appearances Category:150+ appearances Category:Show alumni Category:Jokerdy! champions Category:200+ appearances Category:Executive producers